Chrome's Brother

Part 36

By Blockhed13

I poked my head into the hallway and looked left and right.

Nothing.

"I guess I'm imagining things," I trailed off, then went back to my bed.

Iemitsu walked into the brief room to an awaiting Lal Mirch.

"You called for me?" He raised an eyebrow.

"It's about Kumoru." Lal answered, "Look at his flame output from his last test."

Iemitsu looked at the screen which portrayed Kumoru in a thermal graph next to Basil. Kumoru was much hotter than Basil. (Don't think about it like that.)

"So?" Iemitsu shrugged.

"They both had only one pill. One pill reduces flame emission by-"

"Half. I'm aware." Iemitsu interrupted, then kept staring at the screen, "It shows the power for one flame."

Lal nodded. Iemitsu stared at the screen more intently.

"How does he have an entire flame with only half the power?" He questioned.

"It's simple," Lal started, "He has two complete flames. Not two halves of two flames."

Iemitsu raised an eyebrow, "He can control one whole flame?"

Lal nodded, Iemitsu looked down at her.

"How's his background check on Black Operations?" he asked.

"Nothing unusual. Although, we traced his purchases and something came up." Lal informed. Iemitsu narrowed his brows in curiosity.

"What'd you find?" he asked.

"A video game purchased called Call of Duty: Black Ops. He got it about three months before his demise," Lal answered, "But there's absolutely no way he acquired his gun skills from a video game."

"There's also no way one person can hold two complete flames," Iemitsu argued, "I think you're on to something. Dig deeper. Keep an eye on Kumoru as well."

Lal nodded in acknowledgment.

I picked myself up and started to think to myself.

"Why am I here?" I shook my head, "What happened? Who am I?"

I closed my eyes and stopped the questions. Don't ask, don't ever ask.

Right then, I heard my door open. I cracked my eyes open and shifted them to the door. Basil was there. I opened my eyes completely.

"Need something?" I asked him somewhat enthusiastic.

"Thou needest a companion," he cracked a smile, "How dost thou do?"

"Sit, stare at a wall, ponder why I'm here, and…" I trailed off and looked at the ceiling, then back at Basil, "Sleep."

"Doing that to thy self is unhealthy." He advised. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What does thy suggest?" I impersonated.

"I propose we go to town and relax." He smiled.

I thought about it for a moment, "I don't know. And I mean I don't know if I should or if I'm allowed to leave."

He rested his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye, "I'll take care of that."

He lifted his hand off me and headed out of my room. Hm.

Basil poked his head into the meeting room, where Lal was. Lal looked over at him.

"Basil, what're you doing here?" she asked.

"I wish to take Kumoru-dono into town for relaxation," Basil promised, "And I'll stay with him."

Lal thought for a moment, "Go ahead and do that. I need him out of the base for a little while," She nodded, "But don't let him out of your sight."

Basil nodded.